Kerry Healey, the current lieutenant governor, and presumed Republican nominee for the governor's race, officially announced her candidacy the other night. As is the norm for Republican's in this state, she focused on two main points:

First, she won't "tax and spend." Great plan, Massachusetts schools aren't up to par, the state's higher education system is vastly underfunded, and the solution, of course, is less spending. Though I can certainly admit that property taxes here are obsurd. Boston's residential property tax rate is about 5 times that in my Vermont home town.

Second, she should be elected because the state house is dominated by Democrats and we need someone to keep them in check. Maybe she and Tom "I'm an outsider with unparalled experience" Reilly are sharing a strategiest, because both are far to focused on silly political reasons and not their ideas for the future of the state.


In other Gubanatorial-race news, Deval Patrick out fundraised Tom Reilly by just short of $100,000 dollars in January. Reilly still holds a huge advantage, but it's nice to see that Deval is beginning to benefit from the great support he is enjoying, as demonstrated by the caucuses. TR's people stuck with the strategy discussed last paragraph, pointing out that the Democrat will need a lot of money in order to win in November. Yes, TR, we get it, winning is a good thing. Jack Parker is pretty good at winning too, that doesn't make him less of a drunk.